Saint Etienne - London Conversations (new "best of")

BTW "Burnt Out Car 2008" is song of the day on Popjustice. There's only a short clip as usual but it already sound great to me.

...it's almost identical to the Balearico mix version on Casino Classics only a bit glossier.

And "This is Tomorrow" is apparently a new version remixed by Richard X. Can anyone confirm/deny this?

Who, truly, cannot love them? ABBA except uncomplicatedly cool, and I adore ABBA.

Is the label Townsend Records? I'm just wondering if eMusic is going to get this (I'm pretty sure it won't, since there's no other St. Etienne on eMusic, in the US, at least).

I think this is being released on Heavenly/Universal.

Crap. The only St. E disc on eMusic is Finisterre, which I take it is one of their weaker efforts.

You take it wrong. I don't really think they have any weak efforts, tho. Most people go nuts for the pre Good Humor stuff, I suppose, I think that was a time and a place that was all very lovely but LIFE IS CHANGE MOFO etc

Hm. Fair enough; I'll investigate further. I know little about them, as it is, so I won't suffer from over-inflated expectations.

You should have a wonderful time.

I'll download it tonight.

this is sort of replacing smash the system, i guess?

Finisterre is their worst album. Well, it's between that and Turnpike House. I really can't see how anyone could say that the quality did not dive in the 21st century (after the excellent Places To Visit and Interlude releases).

FWIW two thirds of the tracks on this "best of" are from 1991-1998 (when Good Humor was released) with only a third being from 1998 - 2008, despite the crazy amount of material they've released since then (about 8 albums worth). I think they spread themselves too thin.

their stuff from the past decade is only a shade below their early stuff imo and i would actually say the weakest efforts in their catalog are interlude, places to visit, and sound of water (though all i would call "good", just not "excellent")

It's a bit depressing to see Hug My Soul, Pale Move etc all repackaged for the umpteenth time.It would be great if they got someone to curate (hate that expression) a compliation of the best of this century, incorporating the film soundtracks, b-sides, fanclub releases, remixes etc, kinda like that one the Fall put out a while back. The good stuff in there is gold (at least the ones I've heard) but there's a lot of dreck too. I realise not everyone feels like this but there's way too much Sarah Cracknell in that tracklisting above. Stuff like "Soft Like Me" just makes me cringe. That's why I like Interlude and Places To Visit - much more instrumental stuff or just a bit of "doo-doo-doo-ing", less of the coy/cloying up-front vocals.

finisterre is their worst album IMO; I think Turnpike House is quite a bit better. Finisterre has a lot of ILM love for some reason though. Sound of Water is one of my faves and everyone here dislikes it. so whatever. Everyone is at least in agreement that Tiger Bay is the best one.

The best = So Tough.

Everyone is at least in agreement that Tiger Bay is the best one.

Which of the numerous (four?) versions though? It's really GOT to be the 15 track version with I Buy American Records/Hate Your Drug/Grovely Road really. The version with them posing on the cover is really poor.

I like Finisterre quite a bit, actually -- I think the electro suited them.

^

good god, is this greatest-hits no. 465 or what?

It's kind of just a Smash the System update, no?

Saint Etienne "Proper" Albums Ranked:

1. Tiger Bay (long version - otherwise I'd probably bump it down to 3rd place)
2. So Tough
3. Foxbase Alpha
4. Finisterre
5. The Sound of Water
6. Tales From Turnpike House
7. Good Humour

I think Finisterre is easy to underrate because it's the release that feels least like it has a defined aesthetic - there's nothing to unite, say, "Soft Like Me", "Stop & Think It Over", and "New Thing". If anything, those sampled spoken word interludes actually make this problem more pronounced, insofar as they come off as a post-facto (and ever so slightly hamfisted? though I like some of them) stab at implying some overarching concept or purpose that isn't really there.

It's certainly not an album that bowls you over on the first couple of listens - perhaps "Shower Scene" aside. The strength is in the songwriting and, in some sense, the bluntness of the arrangements (esp. when compared to the preceding two albums), esp. on tracks like "B92", which helps the album to hit its emotional targets more effectively.

The album would be improved by teasing out that vibe a bit more - the Mr Joshua remix of "Action" is infinitely superior to the original because it unabashedly verges on straightforward house-pop in a way they had carefully avoided ever since "He's On The Phone" ("We're In The City" being too icy to count, though I adore it - same goes for "Heart Failed In The Back Of A Taxi").

The Sound of Water is of course beautiful-sounding, but I think only a couple of tracks - like my fave "Sycamore" - match that with an emotional punch. And even with "Sycamore" the emotional punch really is just a side-effect of the fact that the song takes the lushness of the album generally to its logical conclusion. Even when Sean O'Hagan isn't responsible for the sound, The Sound of Water strikes me as being much closer to Stereolab's version of prettiness than the band's own - a prettiness so intensely formal that it brackets off non-formalist relationships to the music.

It's funny/odd/ironic/whatever, because I loved So Tough and Foxbase Alpha so much and now I hardly ever listen to them. Almost every album has had a period where I really loved it - that is, up until Turnpike House, which never got any traction with me - pretty enough, but just kind of boring. I much preferred it when they told their stories in a slightly fractured way.

I think the reason a lot of people dislike Finisterre is because it has "Let's try electro" written all over it, and coming right as electroclash was peaking, (I think) some people seem to see it as bandwagon-hopping. Maybe we're talking at cross-purposes, though - everything from Good Humour on has seemed to have a very clear aesthetic to me (with Tales feeling for the first time like they were recycling a bit.

If I ranked in order of listens, I'm fairly certain I'd come up with:
1. The Sound of Water
2. Finisterre
3. Good Humour
4. Tiger Bay
5/6. So Tough / Foxbase Alpha
7. Tales From Turnpike House

There's only three electroclashy tracks on Finisterre though, yeah? "Amateur", "New Thing" and "B92".

Seems like less of a try-on to me than the stylistic maneuvers of Good Humour and The Sound of Water.

everything otm re this compilation. If it was their first compilation I'd be pretty excited about it but the constant repackaging of former glories feels like they're taking the piss. I've said before but they need a package like the Stereolab or B&S which compile all the deleted singles, b-sides, remixes and other odds and sods.

My top 7, So Tough and Turnpike House are neck and neck, the following 4 could easily be switched around depending on my mood. Good Humour is just unforgivable, though I''ll still keep my copy.

1. So Tough
2. Turnpike House
3. Foxbase Alpha
4. Sound of Water
5. Finistere
6. Tiger Bay
^
^
^
^
^
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7. Good Humour

My own problem with Finisterre is that it doesn't have any straightforward pop songs. It's like they're trying too hard to mix in 'difficult' things all the time. This happens in all St. Etienne post-Sound of Water, but I think in Finisterre it's a bit overdone. Like that dissonant note right before the chorus of "Action", and the wierd filter they use on the acoustic guitar. The song's got such a killer pop chorus, why mess with the rest? I dunno, it's all a bit frustrating.

Turnpike could've been A LOT better without all the complicated vocal harmonies. It just doesn't work, especially on the more electro stuff like Milk Bottle Symphony"

I'm actually really looking forward to see what they do next because I've been pleasantly surprised by the few tracks they've done since Turnpike.

Anyway, here's my own ranking:

1. So Tough
2. Foxbase Alpha
3. Tiger Bay
4. Sound of Water
5. Finisterre
6. Tales of Turnpike House
7. Good Humour

I'm not sure what Continental's album status is, but I'd rank it near the top regardless.

Hello Everyone I would like to see Fascination on this!

the good humour hate is a mystery to me

I don't dislike it (and I love it's most unabashedly Cardigans-esque track "The Bad Photographer"), I just think it's the least of their albums.

I don't dislike it either, but it was a BIG departure from their previous work, and unfortunately the things they got rid of are the things I found most appealing about them.

Predictably though, I loved the Trousers Enthusiast's remixes of "Sylvie and "Lose That Girl".

Hello Everyone I would like to see Fascination on this!

-- Hello Everyone!, Saturday, August 16, 2008 8:25 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

Seconded, it's a lovely song. Perhaps they thought it would make Travel Edition obsolete.

i think being totally unfamiliar with the band when i first heard it might be the reason it's in my top 3, it certainly is unlike everything else that came before it and probably everything since.

Nice to read Tom's sleeve notes on Fox Base Alpha (Deluxe).